Saturday, June 20, 2009

which is where I spent most of the day. After I dragged my fat ass out of bed. I think this is the third year for it, and it's slowly growing. I think part of the problem causing slow growth is this is right in the middle of renaissance fair season for a lot of artists and performers, and they have multi-weekend contracts to perform/display. But it's a nice festival, with quite a few performers. Some of whom reminded me about the saying that 'bagpipes indoors are an offensive weapon'.

I'll post a few pictures later. 'Few' because I left the wrong chip in the camera, which means not many pictures.

Oh, and one of the food vendors is a area bakery, with damn good bread and meat pies.

terrorists, and was appalled that he didn't find 'proper journalism'; that there was bias and emotion and personal opinion.

Hey, dumbass, this is my blog. Which I have described as my soapbox upon which to stand and spout my opinion, spread information and laugh at the monkeys throwing crap. That means, amazingly, that you get opinion, emotion and my bias!

Friday, June 19, 2009

Closing Velocity, whose second-to-last post points out that President B. Hussein Cartman Obama seems to have realized(or is just scared of the polls; he IS an Evil Party member) that missile defense just might be a good thing after all, but the idiocy still prevails at this time:

Well, someone at Obama's Pentagon got the message, for Hawaii is being fortified with a new deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors and the SBX is finally putting to sea:

Mr. Gates told reporters that the U.S. is positioning a sophisticated floating radar array in the ocean around Hawaii to track an incoming missile. The U.S. is also deploying missile-defense weapons to Hawaii that would theoretically be capable of shooting down a North Korean missile, should such an order be given, he said.

"We do have some concerns if they were to launch a missile to the west, in the direction of Hawaii," Mr. Gates said.

Although Gates did not explicitly say that the U.S. would try to shoot down a test missile aimed in the direction of Hawaii, he noted that interceptor missiles in California and Alaska were ready.

"The ground-based interceptors are clearly in a position to take action," Gates said. "So without telegraphing what we will do, I would just say, I think we are in a good position, should it become necessary to protect American territory."

Perhaps the reality of missile defense is setting in on a few of the adults in Washington. Or more likely, perhaps someone's watching the polls:

A new Gallup Poll finds 51% of Americans saying North Korea currently poses a direct threat to U.S. security. That is the highest percentage seen for eight countries or territories tested in the poll whose political climates or ongoing conflicts present a threat to U.S. interests in the world.

An attempt Tuesday to restore money slashed from the missile defense budget failed to gain traction when an amendment that would have paid for additional interceptors in Alaska was defeated.

You know, it takes a monumental level of stupid to look at the threats from Iran and the Norks, be forced to actually use these systems, and STILL want to chop funding. But that's the HOPE! and CHANGE! we've got.

on this post that Sarah Palin is (fill in the blank, basically) and a nasty politician, a fake-conservative decoy, etc. I told him he was full of crap. This led to him telling me, among other things,I think you are your own worst enemy, of the sort who keeps doing the same thing and supporting the same re-tread figures advocated and marketed to you through mass media owned by multi-national corporations, and you cant figure out why you still lose, no matter if its bush or obama in office. they will always be 'one of you' when campaigning and they will always be a dutiful servant of well-paying multi-national corporate interests once they get elected.Yeah. Right. I supported McCain wholeheartedly because the major media and Stupid Party Brass told me to and totally supported Bush and-

Wait, no I didn't! I think I actually agreed with Kevin that McCain was the least repulsive Democrat in the race! I said nasty things about Bush over the last few years! I even told my kids in 2000 that I had real problems with Bush, but the alternative...

Mr. Anonymous, screw you. I haven't trusted the major media about much of anything since long before I was online, and I've told the Stupid Party numerous times just exactly what I think of them. Here and using their "We need your money" forms to say Hell, no, and explain why. You remind me of the clown who wrote to Lawdog calling him names for being such a suckup to McCain, apparently never bothering to read anything Dog wrote about him.

I'm not a Palin worshipper; I do think she'd make a good President, and I think the type and level of media and celebutard attacks on her speak of just how much they're scared of the idea. She ain't perfect, and I know it; she'd have been a hell of a lot better than either McCain or Obama.

and got a very nice deal from the IRS. As Insty says, "I don’t even want to hear anyone in this Administration talk about tax increases, when they can’t seem to staff it with people who have actually, you know, paid their taxes on time."And, let's note, keep getting far nicer treatment from the IRS than plain old Joe or Jane Citizen would.

Jammie Wearing Fool notes this:Ms. Marshall may fare better because, after ultimately filing the 2005 and 2006 federal and local paperwork, she was entitled to $37,259 in refunds, according to data she provided to Mr. Lugar.Ok, how the hell rich do you have to be to not file when you've got money- especially that kind of money- coming back? This flat smells.

It may not have actually been a statement from the President:Which brings us back to C.J. When he contacted the White House for clarification he got a third answer. Not "Sorry, we made an exclusive statement to the AP, check with them" or "we only released that to Arkansas media" - instead, he was told "the President is attempting to call the family of Army Pvt Long".

We've got three different answers now from the White House on the central question "did the President make a statement"? I suspect the correct answer would be a fourth one: "no".This is the first I've heard of this piece of crap being dug up. A lot of people wondered at the time why it took so damn long for the President to make a statement, and that when he (supposedly) did it was such a piece of garbage; this makes it worse by far. This sounds like some staffer noticed that people were getting really pissed about the matter and made up a 'statement from the President' that he thought would take care of it.

Go over to Mudville and read the whole piece. As Kim used to say, it would be wise to move breakables out of reach first.

A while back I was at the outdoor range, and when I finished the rifle stuff and moved to the handgun side there was a lady instructing another lady(obvious beginner) in handgun basics. The beginner- who was wearing a PD patch, turned out to have just been hired- had a slightly unusual pistol, and I asked her about it:"When I joined the department, my husband gave it to me. Didn't ask what I wanted, just gave it to me."It was a Glock.Pink.With matching pink handcuffs.No, she was not overly thrilled. She was happy he'd given her a pistol, but wished she'd had some input on the matter.

While they were working I moved a few places down and started some draw & fire practice. I'd forgotten that I had the extra-power recoil spring in, and so after the first shot I got a double-feed. I dropped the mag, racked the action, new mag(my spare carry-load mag, forgot to reload it with the practice stuff), rack, bang. Finished that mag, and while I was reloading the older lady doing the teaching came over."What department do you work for? Sheriff's office?""No, ma'am, just practicing.""Oh, you compete?""No. Just practicing.""Oh. Well, practice is always good."While I finished reloading, she went back to her student and, due to the electronic muffs, I heard her say "I'd have sworn he shoots competition." Apparently my clear of the jam went I lot faster and better than I thought it did.

"The handgun would not be my choice of weapon if I knew I was Going to a fight....I'd choose a rifle, a shotgun, an RPG or an atomic Bomb instead."

"The two most important rules in a gunfight are: always cheat and always win."

"Every time I teach a class, I discover I don't know something."

"Don't forget, incoming fire has the right of way."

"Make your attacker advance through a wall of bullets. I may get killed with my own gun, but he's gonna have to beat me to death with it, 'cause it's going to be empty."

"If you're not shootin', you should be loadin'. If you're not Loadin, you should be movin', if you're not movin', someone's gonna cut Your head off and put it on a stick."

"When you reload in low light encounters, don't put yourflashlight in your back pocket.. If you light yourself up, you'll look like an angel or the tooth fairy...and you're gonna be one of 'em pretty soon."

"Do something. It may be wrong, but do something."

"Nothing adds a little class to a sniper course like a babe in a ghilliesuit."

"Shoot what's available, as long as it's available, until something else becomes available."

"If you carry a gun, people will call you paranoid. That's ridiculous.. If I have a gun, what in the hell do I have to be paranoid for."

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Friend Oren the gunsmith needed some help getting some things set up in his shop, but what he got was me getting in the way the last two days. Let me set the scene for you: shop building, no a/c, highs upper 90's and enough humidity to remind you of the marshy ground around a pond in the woods. But, despite my contribution, some things were accomplished(in part my threatening his son if he didn't get his butt busy with the mower and weedeater; for some reason he listens to me) in exchange for the effort and sweat.

I must note that things were livened up somewhat by his dog. She lives to have a ball thrown, and has a habit of walking up to you and dropping it- or what's left of it- behind you and standing there with an expectant look. Which can cause some excitement when you step back and either step on the ball or nearly fall over her.

But progress was made, so it was time well spent. Plus he's one of the best friends I've ever had, and I haven't had much chance to spend time with him for a while; worth it for that.

Now, I must move on to the tale of Rafferty the Rescued PuppyHe's the critter my ex rescued from less-than-optimal circumstances. Hard to tell from the pictures, but he's grown a lot. It became obvious that he was going to become bigger than she could keep. But a happy ending ensues; a lady she works with thinks he's The Most Darling Thing Ever. And the feeling is apprently returned, as he starts wiggling and wagging as soon as he sees her, so tomorrow he goes to his new home.

Itzl the long-haired chihuahua will have to get used to not being ambushed anymore,

but I imagine he'll do it quickly. He's become a Dignified Adult(yes, he does tend to act it in capitals) and the pup was about to cause him real annoyance at times.

So tomorrow he and all his toys will exit to a new home(including kids and dogs), which should suit him just fine.

disbelief follows:I got a couple of questionable friend requests recently, purportedly from women. One was from an English blond. In her Facebook photo, she wore a white tube top with nothing underneath. Am I a bad person for suspecting this is actually a fat guy who runs a phone sex business? Probably a grizzled Alexei Sayle lookalike who sends friend requests while lounging around in his living room, wearing only the kind of peculiar underwear European men think is normal.

Maybe it’s Alexei himself. I think times have been a little lean for him since “The Bride.”

The guys who pump out bogus Myspace and Facebook friend requests need to understand something. It has probably been 38 years since I realized that really attractive women rarely talk to me or even acknowledge my existence unless they want my money or, maybe, need me to throw water on them because they’re on fire. So when I get gushy friend requests from scantily clad girls named Brittnee or Suzee, I know immediately that I am being scammed.

Nobody Surprised.The questions relate to a letter Eisen sent to some senators Tuesday night attributing Walpin's dismissal, in significant part, to Walpin's behavior at a May 20, 2009 board meeting of the Corporation for National and Community Service, the organization that oversees AmeriCorps. Eisen wrote that at the meeting, "Mr. Walpin was confused, disoriented, unable to answer questions and exhibited other behavior that led the board to question his capacity to serve." After the meeting, Eisen wrote, Walpin lost the confidence of the Corporation Board. The White House conducted a review of the matter, and Walpin was fired. (For a detailed account of Walpin's reaction to the White House charges, see here.)

At Wednesday's meeting, Sen. Grassley's staffers wanted to know more about the White House review. "Unfortunately," Grassley writes in a letter sent late Wednesday afternoon to White House counsel Gregory Craig, "Mr. Eisen refused to answer several direct questions posed to him about the representations made in his letter." Grassley says that since Eisen refused to answer the questions in person, Grassley would submit a dozen of them in writing. Here they are:Well hell, guy, if you'd broken a law you'd bragged about having a hand in passing, and done things that are making people very upset, you might be sensitive about answering questions, too. Especially if you're a Chicago machine politician who has never liked answering serious "Why did you do that?" questions. And you're not used to having to think about it because the major media has been so far up your butt they needed air, water and light piped in.

but if they can't even make up their damn mind about that idiot Letterman, maybe they don't need my money.Olive Garden’s manager of media relations, who asked not to be quoted on the record, confirmed to POLITICO Thursday that the emails were sent by the restaurant chain, and also confirmed that the company would be pulling its remaining television spots on the program for the rest of the year when asked that question.

But in a statement released later in the day, Olive Garden Director of Media Relations Rich Jeffers disputed POLITICO’s report as “erroneous.”Sounds like they tried to have it both ways; wanted to say "We don't support Letterman and his 'jokes'", but someone decided they'd rather be connected with him than not. So two stories.

Like the Justice Department Public Corruption Unit is kind of messy; due to corruption in the unit, violations of law, little things like that:
Two months after prosecutors abandoned the criminal conviction of former senator Ted Stevens, the Justice Department unit that polices public corruption remains in chaos, coping with newly discovered evidence that threatens to undermine other cases while department leaders struggle to reshuffle the ranks.
...
At the same time, document-sharing lapses that provoked the Stevens turnaround are also affecting other bribery prosecutions in the state, prompting authorities to take the extraordinary step of releasing two Alaska lawmakers from prison late last week. A new team of government lawyers and FBI agents is reviewing thousands of pages of evidence, trying to assuage the concerns of judges and fielding complaints from defense attorneys.
...
New members of the prosecution team told the judge that they would finish sharing previously unproduced materials by July 31. Already, defense attorneys for the former Alaska legislators have secured scores of pages of newly disclosed materials from the government on the condition that they keep the documents secret.

John Henry Browne, an attorney for Kohring, said he was expecting a dozen or so documents but instead is sorting through a stack of more than 1,000 pages.

"There are a number of smoking guns in here," Browne said. "I wouldn't be surprised if the Justice Department sometimes dismisses these cases" rather than expose the former prosecutors to cross examination about their alleged failure to share documents.
Translation: "Well, we'll see if the Justice Department wants their prosecutors being put under oath and asking why they violated the law and acted unethically."

Corrupt public officials need to be caught and thrown out of office and jailed; so do prosecutors who violate the law to get a conviction 'no matter what'.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Obama or you?”Mr. Obama is a politician, and a very astute one. However, his speech revealed that his view is unduly influenced by naïve desire. His perception of Islam and the reality of Islam need to be synchronized. I am a physician and a realist who has lived and experienced the effect of my Arab culture and Islamic religion since childhood.

The president pandered to Muslims: praised their accomplishments, commiserated with their grievances, and apologized for injustices done to them by centuries of colonialism -- without once mentioning the history of rampant and violent Arab colonialism. He avoided any mention of Jihadi tenets, or of the Islamic political ideology of supremacy over non Muslims -- principles embedded in Sharia law. These are taught and sanctioned openly by Al-Azhar, the university that hosted him, the foremost center of Sharia studies. Obama underscored the supposed American mistreatment of terrorists and apologized for torture in Guantanamo, forgetting that Islamic regimes are brutal to their own people. The president also repudiated significant U.S. contributions in both the lives of its soldiers and humanitarian aid to Muslims across the globe made throughout history -- despite Muslim attacks against America and Americans. In short, parts of his speech sounded like a new Pan-Arab messiah come to usher the Arab world back into its rightful world dominion....Since arriving in the US, I have enjoyed the freedom to educate my Arab brothers and sisters in the Middle East, who yearn for real freedom - and I have seen successes. Mr. Obama calls these very successes into question rather than championing freedom.

As the president embarks on his new task to defend Muslims “against negative stereotypes,” does this mean he will somehow interfere and undermine that message? Or, perhaps it means he may join with the Organization of Islamic Conference, the 57 Muslim countries that work relentlessly to promote a United Nations resolution to suppress voices of dissent against Islam? I am confident we would all come to regret this.

Obama sidesteps the acute state of affairs in the Islamic world with flattery, failing to encourage accountability for rhetoric, practices and the behavior that feed stereotypes. I did not hear an exhortation to the Islamic world to open itself to diversity, to accept women as equal citizens with the same rights and protection under law as men. I did not hear a challenge to the Muslim world to accept other religions and their ability to practice openly within the Islamic world -- where the practice of Christianity, Judaism and other religions could cost an individual his or her life. I did not hear a call to erase for all time, Dhimmi racism -- the Sharia law-based dictate that Christians and Jews are inferior and should be suppressed. Are these “…the principles of justice, tolerance and dignity for human beings”?A very good piece by Wafa Sultan, well worth reading.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Lead and Gold has a link to a report, short and concise. I'd like to quote one bit:One of the most important lessons of this attack is the continuing importance of an earlier operational form: the firearms assault. While the counterterrorism world has been focused almost exclusively on explosives, this attack demonstrates that firearms assault, while not as deadly as mass-casualty bombings, can be an effective tactic in creating prolonged chaos in an urban setting.Put bluntly: in a city full of mostly unarmed people, a small group of terrorists with nothing but some guns, unless law enforcement or security forces are right there and capable, can cause an ungodly mess. Which brings me to something Lawdog wrote a while back:"But, LawDog, I'm a CCW, not a cop. I'm not going to be responding to bank robberies."

Given that terrorism isn't going away any time soon, I'd not bet the ranch on that, but that's a discussion for another time.Which is as nice a way as you'll hear of pointing out 'something like Mumbai could happen here. And you might be right there in the middle of it.' A flat-out terrifying thought, ain't it?

One of the things that surprises a lot of (sometimes stupid) critics of CCW is that they'll make some snotty comment about "Got to shoot anybody yet?" and the response is something on the lines of "I devoutly hope I never have to." And, in most self-defense uses of a gun, no shot is fired; bad guy finds out the intended victim is armed and ready to shoot, and decides to exit stage left as fast as possible, or surrenders. But here?

If this happens, and you're there, you've got terrorists who plan on dying; they hope to use their own death to further terrify us. Which means, you get caught in that, it's very simple: you may die if you fight, but you- and maybe a bunch of other people- will die if you don't. And you cannot count on the police. Most cops in the US, I think, will not have a problem with 'shoot the bad guys', but if the bad guys are smart, they'll first shoot any cops they see. Or just strike in an area away from them. And that means, if all goes to hell and you're there, you're it.

In the June issue of Guns, in the Odd Angry Shot column, there's this:Significant numbers of police officers and other public officials resign or are fired- some, because they realize and admit they are not psychologically equipped to deal with events like this, others because their incompetence or cowardice were spotlighted and magnified by it.BecauseAfterward, scads of citizens complained the police hid and huddled right alongside them, refusing, sometimes profanely, to take action against the shooters.......He saw two gunmen "calmly stroll across the station concouirse shooting both civilians and policement," who, he said were armed but did not return fire- they only took cover and hid.As I say, I think the average cop in the US is more likely to draw and shoot; if nothing else, they've had far more training for such than the Mumbai police. But if they're not there when it happens, it doesn't matter if the guy with the badge is William Butler Hickock reborn.

I'll tell you flatly, when I seriously run through "What do I do if-?" in my mind, about a restaurant or mall or store, it scares hell out of me. And I really, really hope those plans/thoughts are never needed. But I'd rather think them through and sweat, than consider it happening and me not be ready because "It was just too terrible to think about."

Badly.Tolerance and open-mindedness are ideals to which Canadians have subscribed, and are part of the quest for equality that has come to define our country all over the world. They are the foundation of the Canadian Human Rights Act, whose promise is to give effect "to the principle that all individuals should have an opportunity equal with other individuals to make for themselves the lives that they are able and wish to have" without discrimination...."So we have to censor what you say- especially if you're a conservative or religious or other non-PC type human- to make sure you don't take away someone's opportunity by saying something they don't like."

Isn't it wonderful how tyrants and tyrant-wannabes can justify their tyranny?

Me: I’m sorry, fellas, we don’t have Bud Light. We have PBR on draft, though.

Intern #1: (sighs) Fine, four of those.

Me: No problem. I just need to see your ID’s.

Intern #2: You don’t need to see our ID’s. We work for Congressman _______ from ________. (Flashes his red badge)

Me: Sorry, dude, but unless the Distinguished Gentleman from _______ is willing to use his oversight authority to make the $10,000 fine that we’d get slapped with for serving you without ID’s go away, and give me a paying job when I get fired anyway, I’m still going to have to see them.

of fairly standard type. If you've got the time and stomach(usual 'little penis, violent, nasty, NRA vile people' crap all comes in), you'll find a couple of things in the comments that just about sum it up:...And while you NRA folks absolutely have the right to your opinions, you're not going to change any minds here with this kind of angry debate. Blogging creates community, and by barreling in with cold statistics and colder attitudes, you are not going to have any kind of positive effect on the readers of this blog."How DARE you bring up nasty facts? How dare you not care more about our feelings?" Etc.So with that I will close comments. Because this has morphed from civil discussion to antagonistic, disrespectful finger pointing... and now we're talking about dick endowment (no pun intended) wtf.Uh, who brought that up? Wasn't the gun owners.

ABCNEWS anchor Charlie Gibson will deliver WORLD NEWS from the Blue Room of the White House.

The network plans a primetime special -- 'Prescription for America' -- originating from the East Room, exclude opposing voices on the debate.Which problem, being pointed out, has caused ABC to act all offended and stuff:"ABCNEWS alone will select those who will be in the audience asking questions of the president. Like any programs we broadcast, ABC News will have complete editorial control. To suggest otherwise is quite unfair to both our journalists and our audience."Umm, Mr. Smith? Part of the problem is that 'ABCNEWS alone will select' crap; with you fairly blatantly sucking up to the administration, it's your selecting who and what gets said and asked that's a big part of the damn problem. And getting snotty and offended won't change that.

For all the young president's popularity, the response he got Monday from doctors at an American Medical Association meeting was a sign his road is only going to get rockier as he tries to sell his plan to overhaul the nation's health care system.

The boos erupted when Obama told the doctors in Chicago he wouldn't try to help them win their top legislative priority — limits on jury damages in medical malpractice cases.I heard part of this speech on radio; "I don't want government-run health care(or single-payer), though it works just fine in other countries", etc. Basically told them "You need to get with my plan, or Disaste Will Strike.", and the other usual crap.

We'll probably hear about this in a major media broadcast the same time they tell us about Chinese students laughing at the Treasury Secretary when he claimed things were just fine.

expansion that's being pushed right now. He says "Can't these people just butt out?"

Of course not. Their whole purpose is to control, and if they can do it by changing a definition and not having to go through Congress, well, so much the better! Try to avoid people actually hearing about it and getting upset.

I have to wonder, was this an independent idea, or did they get it from the way BATFE has been known to change a definition or rule without needed to go through Congress?

again. With, of course, an omission. Here's, to me, a critical part:...But there was a joke that I told, and I thought I was telling it about the older daughter being at Yankee Stadium. And it was kind of a coarse joke. There's no getting around it, but I never thought it was anybody other than the older daughter, and before the show, I checked to make sure in fact that she is of legal age, 18. Yeah. But the joke really, in and of itself, can't be defended.So, he supposedly took pains to make sure he was crapping on the older daughter, because that would be ok. Yeah.

You know, if this dirtbag had said something like "I should never have made such a joke about the kids. Period.", something like that, I might believe he actually means it. Instead, he makes it plain that shitting on Gov. Palin's kids is fine, as long as they're at least 18. For which he should have his ass kicked. I'm guessing pressure on advertisers is what led to this 'apology', and he's trying to keep his options open to keep attacking the kids of politicians he doesn't like while still playing "I'm apologizing, so leave me alone now." This is a vile piece of work, and he shouldn't get away with it.

I am struggling against a feeling of utter disgust. I recognize that there are times in diplomacy when one has to hide one's real feelings and to mince one's words about evil. And I realize that it is remotely possible that this is one of those times.

Yet this is a president who mormally loves the bully pulpit. And Obama's statements so far are about as restrained as it is possible for a president to utter without a gun actually being held to his head. One might perhaps understand a statement this mushy if Iran were America's closest political or military ally in the world. But it's not.

Note that even now Obama is not willing to denounce Ahmadinejad. All he is willing to say is "as odious as I consider some of President Ahmadinejad's statements." Obama chooses his words carefully. He doesn't call Ahminejad odious, nor does he call Ahmadinejad's core beliefs odious (after all, sometimes people say loose things that don't express their core beliefs). Nor does he say that Ahmadinejad's statements ARE odious, just that Obama personally "considers" them odious.

is the name of the article, and it pretty much sums it up: The book deals specifically with the FBI’s failure to stop the master spy in question, Ali Mohamed, who had infiltrated the Bureau, the CIA and the Green Berets at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Of particular interest to me, Lance details how the Ali Mohamed case intersected with the TWA Flight 800 case, a subject that Lance is not afraid to tackle.

More generally, the book documents the role Southern District New York (SDNY) Fitzgerald played in the war on terror, a war that Lance claims Fitzgerald badly mismanaged before September 11, 2001.I haven't read the book; considering the idiocies that have come out about pre-9/11 actions(and inactions), we know some of these clowns should have been fired for what they did(and did not do). In any case, it seems Patrick Fitzgerald is a bit upset:Claiming to have been defamed, Fitzgerald sent Harper Collins an 11-page letter in October 2007 demanding that the publisher publicly apologize, withdraw all copies of the book, and refrain from publishing any updated versions.

Needless to say, this was not a friendly admonition. It came with an implicit threat to sue, even if HarperCollins met Fitzgerald’s terms.

HarperCollins took the threat seriously. Fitzgerald has a reputation for playing hardball. He had earned it by prosecuting Cheney chief of staff Scooter Libby for misremembering details of a pseudo-crime Fitzgerald knew he did not commit.I bolded that because I think it's really important; that a prosecutor would do this is disgusting, a violation of his oath. If he'd do this, how else would he use the power of his position? Like, maybe, threatening someone who published something he didn't like?

An equally unsettling development would take place in the days following Fitzgerald’s fourth letter. Ann Sparanese, an anti-censorship advocate and a former member of the governing Council of the American Library Association, posted an item on the blog, Library Juice, criticizing Fitzgerald.

Sparanese noted that Fitzgerald had sent at least one letter on a U.S. Attorney fax machine, that he had already tied up publication of Triple Cross for 18 months while author and publisher were forced to review his charges, and that his effort represents an “example of the chilling effect of censorship.”

An attorney named Cynthia Kouril, who had served in the Southern District of New York that Lance had investigated, immediately responded to Sparanese’s posting.

Kouril warned the blog’s host, Rory Litwin, that “by making a conscious editorial choice to post [Sparanese’s piece], rather than being a passive host, you do take responisbility (sic) for content under the Electronic Comminications (sic) Decency Act.”'Passive host'? 'Conscious editorial decision'? Oooh, these lawyers don't like any kind of criticism, do they? Even when it's not criticism of themselves?

And an end note: I have seen this suppression up close. The FBI arrested my TWA 800 writing partner, James Sanders, and his wife Elizabeth for Sanders’ reporting on the Feds’ foul play in the TWA 800 case.

The Federal investigation into the Sanders began days after Sanders’ research into government malfeasance had been featured in a major newspaper article.

In a subsequent civil trial, the judge acknowledged that the FBI’s “aggressive investigation commenced immediately following publication of the newspaper article,” but, the judge continued, “it does not follow that [the Sanders] were punished because they may have drawn blood.”

The name of that judge? Sonia Sotomayor. If things go as planned, Fitzgerald may want to take his case directly to the Supreme Court.

If I remember right, the American Library Association is very big on 'banned books' and so forth, but have refused to condemn Castro & Co. for jailing librarians in Cuba; interesting to see them getting whacked at by the same kind of "Don't talk about us" that Fidel has used on librarians in Cuba for years.

Monday, June 15, 2009

and stupidity:The first “anti-stab” knife is to go on sale in Britain, designed to work as normal in the kitchen but to be ineffective as a weapon.

The knife has a rounded edge instead of a point and will snag on clothing and skin to make it more difficult to stab someone.

It was invented by industrial designer John Cornock, who was inspired by a documentary in which doctors advocated banning traditional knives. Of course, if you need a point for something in the kitchen you'll have to use another knife. Unless the socialist hoplophobes decide to ban all 'non-anti-stab' knives, in which case they can take a break from making sure you have a license to watch tv and instead go through your kitchen to make sure you don't have an old knife around.Mr Cornock, 42, from Swindon, said that the knife will cut vegetables, but will make it almost impossible to stab someone to death and will reduce the risk of accidental injuries. Unless you really drive it in. Or just cut their throat or do other slicing with it.He said: “It can never be a totally safe knife, but the idea is you can’t inflict a fatal wound. Nobody could just grab one out of the kitchen drawer and kill someone.”Again, unless you drive it in really hard. Which murderers and such undesirable types tend to do. Or just grab it and start cutting(yes, I'm sure somebody is trying to figure out how to force people to only own dull knives).The knife is expected to sell for around £40-50 and has been tested with “very favourable” results by the Home Office’s Design and Technology Alliance - set up to research products that can deter crime. So, in the name of a 'safer' knife, they want people to spend $90-100 on something thatA: has no point, which is a useful sort of thing on a knife,B: can still cut,C: can, with a few minutes time, receive a bright, shiny new point suitable for puncturing all kinds of things.

You know, seems it would be a lot simpler to, say, capture violent criminals and lock their ass up for a LONG time, than to keep blaming objects for what the criminals do...

and he's 'deeply troubled'. But not so troubled that he won't talk to Ahmadinnerjacket, still without preconditions.The Obama administration is determined to press on with efforts to engage the Iranian government, senior officials said Saturday, despite misgivings about irregularities in the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad…Just damn wonderful, isn't it?

Michael Totten is keeping a running story going on the mess over there.

Of course, it's possible The One is distracted by what his friends in ACORN are doing in New York: On Thursday, some 150 protestors -- many of them from the thuggish far-left group ACORN -- turned up outside the Senate chamber and actually assaulted members of the Republican faction.

The demonstrators nearly knocked to the floor Sen. James Alesi (of upstate Monroe County); they also spat in the face of his chief of staff, according to published reports.

Not only was this violence uncalled for, the ACORN crowd shouldn't even have been there in the first place: The Senate lobby is a restricted area, and public protests are explicitly prohibited.Which means someone gave the order to let them in. Question is, are these clowns under arrest? And if not, why the hell not? This is actual physical assault; even if the Evil Party head of the Senate decided to let them in, that doesn't excuse this crap.(pointed to by the Real King of France)

Or, maybe Pres. B. Hussein Cartman Obama was too busy breaking the law he likes to take credit for and otherwise acting unethically:Senator Charles Grassley has demanded records from the Obama administration over the dismissal of the Inspector General for Americorps and raises the possibility that Barack Obama broke a law he co-sponsored in the Senate that protects the independence of the IGs. The firing comes as the Obama administration cut a sweetheart deal with a major Obama backer that allows him to receive federal funding as mayor of Sacramento, and fails to repay taxpayers for the money Kevin Johnson admittedly took illegally:

Veep Biden tries to claim 'everybody' was wrong about the effects of the 'stimulus'; is noted as being full of crap.

It started sprinkling about the time I posted on the weather last night; then it thunderstormed during the night. Now they're saying slight chance tonight and damn hot & clear the next few days; which will help the wheat harvest(what there is of it) and broil everyone else. I need to get an icemaker.

The farmers' claims were repeated by the head of the regional PA farmers' union, who accused Israelis living in Ariel and nearby towns of planning the attacks. The union head did not explain how Israelis allegedly trained the pigs to destroy only Arab crops.Ah, that's how clever those Jews are, you see? Somehow they trained the boar to magically detect "Arab crops,dead ahead! Dammit, Moshe, stop that, those are kosher carrots, you boob!"Media outlets have also lent credence to the claims, with the PA-based Ma'an news agency stating, “The wild boars are being released by Israeli settlers in order to destroy the plants and crops of Palestinians.”I didn't know Dan Rather had moved to Samaria?Israel is unable to cull the boar population in Arab villages in Samaria, as those areas are entirely under PA control."See! See! They sent them somehow to our villages! Ah, the cleverness and malice of the JOOOOS!"

These people... They ever do wind up without any nasty Jews to blame for everything, what will they do?

The Telegraph looks at the facts of climate cooling showing up in many places; here's the end:Three factors are vital to crops: the light and warmth of the sun, adequate rainfall and the carbon dioxide they need for photosynthesis. As we are constantly reminded, we still have plenty of that nasty, polluting CO2, which the politicians are so keen to get rid of. But there is not much they can do about the sunshine or the rainfall.

It is now more than 200 years since the great astronomer William Herschel observed a correlation between wheat prices and sunspots. When the latter were few in number, he noted, the climate turned colder and drier, crop yields fell and wheat prices rose. In the past two years, sunspot activity has dropped to its lowest point for a century. One of our biggest worries is that our politicians are so fixated on the idea that CO2 is causing global warming that most of them haven't noticed that the problem may be that the world is not warming but cooling, with all the implications that has for whether we get enough to eat.

It is appropriate that another contributory factor to the world's food shortage should be the millions of acres of farmland now being switched from food crops to biofuels, to stop the world warming, Last year even the experts of the European Commission admitted that, to meet the EU's biofuel targets, we will eventually need almost all the food-growing land in Europe. But that didn't persuade them to change their policy. They would rather we starved than did that. And the EU, we must always remember, is now our government – the one most of us didn't vote for last week.Which is why so many of the globular warmering nuts have switched over to being "Man is causing Climate Change!" nuts; hard to tell someone in Montana or Ontario or Australia that Globular Warmering is going to cook you when it's snowing in June. Or, in the case of the Aussies, colder and/or snowier than usual. And you've GOT to keep people from paying attention to those sunspots disappearing and the history of what happens when they do.

Which brings us to the evil Frankenfoods crops that have been genetically-modified in a non-PC manner. As in, in a lab instead of over ten or twenty years in fields. Y'know, like Golden Rice that can help prevent blindness in kids that's not supposed to be used because-Gasp! Horror!- it's been genetically modified to produce a needed vitamin? In this case, a wheat disease that could cause literally catastrophic damage to wheat crops needs to be fought; and the article includes this:After several years of feverish work, scientists have identified a mere half-dozen genes that are immediately useful for protecting wheat from Ug99. Incorporating them into crops using conventional breeding techniques is a nine- to 12-year process that has only just begun. And that process will have to be repeated for each of the thousands of wheat varieties that is specially adapted to a particular region and climate.

"All the seed needs to change in the next few years," said Ronnie Coffman, a plant breeder who heads the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project. "It's really an enormous undertaking."Yes, it is. And not a mention of modifying those genes in a lab; oh, no, we've got to ignore that and hope the 'nine- to 12-year process' can work in time.

People, every single crop out there is the product of genetic manipulation. Corn, beans, wheat, turnips, tomatoes, everything. All of it, to some extent over time, by selective breeding; some by further manipulation in labs. I don't now if some of the "No Frankenfoods!" protesters don't realize it, or don't care, but it's fact. I have a problem with some mods(producing seeds that can't be planted, things like that); especially since some of them can spread to other fields. But if there's no lab looking at ways to change/add those genes it'll surprise hell out of me; problem is, they find a way to do it the EUnuchs & Co. will scream and call names and insist those nasty seeds not be used. And they'll pay the price. Or, the people who starve because of it will pay the price(I'm sure the EUnuchs will still get plenty to eat). As a guy says at Insty, “The great irony is that America’s greater acceptance of genetically engineered food will leave it the least vulnerable to this stuff. The EU may be stuck with genetically modified wheat, if it wants to grow any wheat at all.”

Ann Althouse is often interesting, but occasionally I wonder what the hell is going on in her head. She has this post on the Letterman idiocy, and is bent out of shape about the Palin response:"The Palins have no intention of providing a ratings boost for David Letterman by appearing on his show. Plus, it would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman," PalinPAC spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton said Wednesday.She says this about that:Sullivan seems to miss that Stapleton just made a child-rape joke. It's a joke! Well, it's a joke is not an apt excuse — is it? — when the joke is supposed to work based on a shared belief about the butt of it.

Stapleton's joke depends on seeing Letterman as someone who's enthused about the rape of children — or at least the children of politicians we don't like. By the same token, Letterman's joke worked to the extent that the audience shares the belief that Palin's daughter is a big slut.What the hell? How she gets this from Stapleton's words, I don't know. It's anything but a 'child-rape joke'; it's "We have no intention of exposing the kids to this creepy, insulting bastard." But, further along, she says this in response to a comment:Christy said... "I interpreted "wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman" not as a child rape joke but as a joke that Willow would tear Letterman a new one."

So, in your scenario, the child is now the rapist -- the violent anal rapist? That sure solves everything.I repeat, what the hell? I think she's been reading Sullivan too much, it's affecting her thought processes.

Israel's PM made a speech the other day on the 'two state' solution, and it includes this:This policy must take into account the international situation that has recently developed. We must recognise this reality and at the same time stand firmly on those principles essential for Israel. I have already stressed the first principle – recognition. Palestinians must clearly and unambiguously recognise Israel as the state of the Jewish people. The second principle is: demilitarisation. The territory under Palestinian control must be demilitarised with ironclad security provisions for Israel. Without these two conditions, there is a real danger that an armed Palestinian state would emerge that would become another terrorist base against the Jewish state, such as the one in Gaza. We don't want Kassam rockets on Petach Tikva, Grad rockets on Tel Aviv, or missiles on Ben-Gurion airport. We want peace.

In order to achieve peace, we must ensure that Palestinians will not be able to import missiles into their territory, to field an army, to close their airspace to us, or to make pacts with the likes of Hizbollah and Iran. On this point as well, there is wide consensus within Israel.

It is impossible to expect us to agree in advance to the principle of a Palestinian state without assurances that this state will be demilitarised.As Ace says, it basically tells Obama "You can say all the pretty words you want, if we don't have real assurances, like troops on the ground or something, that a Palestinian state won't be used to attack Israel, it ain't gonna happen. So what do you say?" The Palestinians want Israel destroyed and all the Jews dead(preferably everywhere), and they want to be handed a state with no conditions, so they're screaming and blaming the perfidious Jews for ruining things by demanding to survive; SSDD*. Makes me wonder if Obama thinks he can just keep throwing words and things will happen, or thinks that as long as he's speaking his will people will forget that nothing's happening. Or something.

Another addition to Brigid's handloading post(hey, somebody's got to overly-complicate things; she sure didn't): for straight-wall handgun cases, like .45acp and .38 Special and so forth, there's actually two kinds of dies that don't need lube: carbide(that she spoke of) and titanium nitride. I think it's primarily Hornady that uses the TiN in their dies, but in any case works like carbide. Good stuff.

What, Gov. Palin actually accomplished something? And clowns who had nothing to do with it are trying to claim some credit? Wow.

Inspectors General are part of every federal department. They are given the responsibility of independently investigating allegations of waste, fraud, and corruption in the government, without fear of interference by political appointees or the White House. Last year Congress passed the Inspectors General Reform Act, which added new protections for IGs, including a measure requiring the president to give Congress 30 days prior notice before dismissing an IG. The president must also give Congress an explanation of why the action is needed. Then-Sen. Barack Obama was one of the co-sponsors of the Act.

So what? This:

...on Wednesday night the AmeriCorps inspector general, Gerald Walpin, received a call from the White House counsel’s office telling him that he had one hour to either resign or be fired. The White House did not cite a reason.[RTWT - includes Walpin’s email response to the fone call]

And lots of other stuff. Whole LOTS of other stuff at the linked article.

Canada's chief censor tried to get Ezra Levant thrown off a show. Backfire, in a major way.

I've been reading stuff about the post-election mess in Iran. Was there fraud? I don't doubt it. Anything we can do? Very little; it would involve Obama actually giving support to those yelling about the problems, and he seems far too busy trying to kiss up to Ahmadogcrap to actually, y'know, care about the problem. Other than saying something along the lines of "We are concerned."

Sunday, June 14, 2009

I mean, selling the personal part to stay popular, I'm all for it, but you got us already. We like you, we really like you! You're skinny and in a hurry and in love with a nice lady. But so's Lindsay Lohan. And like Lohan, we see your name in the paper a lot, but we're kind of wondering when you're actually going to do something.

Mouth hangs agape.

He has done a lot of stuff. He's validated all most all of the actions taken by his predecessor (that's what had Rall all fired up), he's dissed his gay constituency (that's got Democratic Underground all fired up), he's essentially taken control of major banks and two of the Big 3 auto makers. How can you say he hasn't done anything? Oh, right. You're Bill Maher.

I know that's harsh. But when I read about how you sat on the sidelines while bailed-out banks used the money we gave them to hire lobbyists who got Congress to stop homeowners from getting renegotiated loans, or how Congress is already giving up on healthcare reform, or how scientists say it's essential to reduce CO2 by 40% in 10 years, but your own bill calls for 4%, I say, enough with the character development, let's get on with the plot.

See? Obama just didn't do what Bill wants done.And so on. It's funny as hell to see people like Mahar having fits because- Gasp! Surprise!- they've discovered The One lied to them, but it's tempered by the knowledge that he's screwing the whole damn country over- or trying very hard to- with the support of these clowns.

It is nice that Obama's now facing revolt from a lot of Evil Party members. Whether it's personal problems with his trying to take over everything, or pressure from people back home saying "He want to do WHAT? You vote for this and you're toast!"; people taking note of the damage being done by his takeover of GM and Chrysler and closing dealerships, people- often with family and/or friends in the military looking at the cuts he's trying to shove through; people looking at his screwing over Israel in order to suck up to the 'muslim world'; there's a lot of Reps and Sens backing off a whole bunch of things. I get the feeling that he truly believed that because he's Obama, and The First (semi)Black President, that people were just going to bow down and do his bidding(witness the "I won" crap early on); now that he's pissed off a LOT more people, including many who voted for him, and now that people are listing to/reading alternate media and getting more information than the major media(i.e., 'the suckups') will give, he's realized- or his advisors have- that he just can't do a lot of this crap. For instance, that 'reduce CO2 by 40% in 10 years' crap; people have been getting the message of just how badly trying that will cripple us('cripple', hell, flat destroy our economy and lives) and raising hell with the politicians, and- most of them being politicians to whom staying in DC means more than anything else- they're listening. Which means no blind following for The One, which means problems in his agenda.

And so the realization hits a lot of people; not only did he lie to them on a lot of things, but he apparently didn't realize just how much resistance would be generated to a lot of the other promises; and, Obama being a Chicago machine politician(defined as 'crooked as a dogs' broken hind leg'), he'll throw just about anybody and anything under the bus if he thinks it'll help him in some way. Like all the good union members now finding their jobs gone but the Union still being kissed by the administration; they realize that while he does indeed 'owe the Unions', he doesn't give a crap about the members, just about the brass who control the money and can order people around.

Like I say, entertaining as hell in some ways, but the enjoyment is tempered.

That bright-red Lee hand press in the pictures? I've got one; first press I owned. I loaded a LOT of .38 Special and .357 Mag on it, and a bunch of .303 British. And yes, full-length resizing a .303 case with it will give you Arms and Shoulders of Steel! if you do much of it. The press I learned from Dad on- which he still has- is a massive old Herter's swaging press, built like an I-beam. Strong enough, and leverage enough, to swage bullets. It's a 'C' press, as the body is 'C'-shaped, open in the front; and 'O' press is closed in front for more rigidity with less weight. If you wind up doing much, I'd suggest getting a 'C' or 'O', as they bolt to the bench and give you more leverage for rifle cases. But I still have that Lee stuck away, as a backup. And because you can take it and sit down and resize/deprime and bell cases in the living room with a movie on.

When you get a scale, the basic you should look at is a good balance-beam scale; very basic, very accurate and will last forever if you take care of it(much like a good press and dies). If you decide to get an electronic scale(Dad has one and loves it) as you primary scale, get a good one. Which is going to cost around a hundred bucks or more. The small ones that you can find on sale for $20 are fine for spot-checking, but they tend to 'drift', as in not holding zero, which means you can weigh a couple of things(charges, bullets, whatever) and then start getting odd weights because it forgot where 'zero' is, so you have to recalibrate, and it's a pain to have to keep doing it. Something like this RCBS, for example(the one Dad has) ain't cheap; unless something's wrong with it, it won't forget where 'zero' is every time you turn around, either.

Brigid covers that you can wash cases to clean them without using a tumbler; you can also wash them AND tumble. Rifle cases that have to be lubed for resizing I usually* wash and dry before I tumble to get rid of ANY traces of lube. She notes you should only use the 'warm' oven setting; reason is, you get the brass too hot and you're annealing it to some extent(accidentally leave the oven too high and you'll completely anneal them) and, as she says, this is Bad. Annealing is something you do to the case mouth area only, and then only when actually needed; anneal the base and the area above and you take away some of the ability of the case to hold pressure, which is indeed a Bad Thing.

Please do not misunderstand, I think she did a damn fine job of covering "Starting Handloading"; it's just that I have a hard time not throwing things in.

*Some lubes are water-soluble, and those that aren't will usually be cut by adding some suitable dish soap(I usually use Dawn). For some jobs I use this stuff, which is flat wonderful, and when you're done you can just wipe those cases with a paper towel to clean it off.

which was nice. Dad was helping an old friend make a start at handloading, and we got him through 100 rounds of .38 wadcutters and 15 rounds of .257 Roberts. He's going to try those out before making any more(especially the rifle loads).

Stormed last night in Lawton, but appears to have missed the Oklahoma City area. Right now, between the tornado or severe thunderstorms watchs, almost the western half of the state is covered. It's mid- to upper 80's outside, and I think the humidity is almost 70%. Which is just delightful, if you like sweating from the effort of breathing. Right now they're saying 30% chance of storms in OKC, but I'll wait; I've seen '30%' turn into 'Head for the cellar!" in the space of a couple of hours.

Brigid has a very good post up on starting handloading; if you're thinking of it, go read, lots of good information. Though I think she made a special effort to make her loading space nice and neat; I've NEVER seen a working bench that clean. If she actually keeps it that clean in use... then she ain't human.

I also left mom the recipe for the cast-iron soda bread; I suspect she'll be trying it the next day or two.

I've got to put things away, and feed the dog in a while; when it's this hot she won't really eat until closer to dark. More later, assuming I don't fall over.

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Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences. - C.S. Lewis

Y'all got on this boat for different reasons, but y'all come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave. - Capt. Mal

A Rifleman’s Prayer:Oh Lord, I would live my life in freedom, peace and happiness, enjoying the simple pleasures of hearth and home. I would die an old, old man in my own bed, preferably of sexual overexertion.

But if that is not to be, Lord, if monsters such as this should find their way to my little corner of the world on my watch, then help me to sweep those bastards from the ramparts, because doing that is good, and right, and just.

And if in this I should fall, let me be found atop a pile of brass, behind the wall I made of their corpses. Geek with a .45

"He's Black Council,", I said.

"Or maybe stupid," Ebenezar countered.

I thought about it. "Not sure which is scarier."

Ebenezar blinked at me, then snorted. "Stupid, Hoss. Every time. Only so many blackhearted villains in the world, and they only get uppity on occasion. Stupid's everywhere, every day." Ebenezar McCoy

“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition” ― Rudyard Kipling